a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer ...

This is the start of an error screen I get when starting my Dimension 4400 with XP Home Edition.  Here are the details:

Recently, I started having problems with my CRT display.  The display would skew once in awhile; mostly upon restarting, as if the surge had something to do with it.  Also, when switching to full-screen visualizations in Windows Media Player, at times would cause the display to skew (eg. 1)The screen would split, showing the left side of the screen on the right and the right side of the screen on the left, 2)scrambled display)... Finally, I restarted on one occasion and the monitor totally scrambled the display, never to work properly again.

I called Dell techs, and after three different conversations I've got a new monitor and video card on the way.  To troubleshoot the skewed display situation, I went so far as to install a brand new video card -- to no avail.  Then, I connected my CRT to my laptop and it worked fine; however, it will always show the scrambled display when connected to the Dimension 4400.

Here's the thing, though: I could tell that my system wasn't starting up properly, even with the display impossible to read/decipher because it would continually restart ever 30 seconds or so.  So tonight I connected the tower to my television via the S-Video output on the original video card in the Dim4400.  It worked fine -- perfect display on the tv.

Well, now that I could see what was going on, I could see that it was going to a screen which presented the following options for starting Windows, stating that Windows had not started successfully:

1) Start in Safe Mode

2) Safe Mode with Networking

3) Safe Mode with Command Prompt

4) Start with Last Good Configuration

5) Start Windows Normally

All of the above options are met with this end:

The Windows XP logo screen is displayed for a brief moment, and everything appears to be booting correctly.  Then, suddenly an error screen pops up and is gone before I can read it with the naked eye.  The system then restarts itself and eventually displays the aforementioned "Start Windows in..." screen, and it's a repeating cycle every time.

Since the error screen appeared so quickly, I recorded the screen with a video camera and paused it during playback in an attempt to read the message.  It's hard to read some of the screen, but it definitely begins with the following:

a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer ...

It then goes on to say to disable any anti-virus, disk defragmentation, or backup utilities.  After that, it's very hard to read but says something about checking drivers and for hard drive corruption, then restart your computer.

Anyone have a guess at what this is all about?  I'm on the laptop now and will check back soon.

Thank you for reading and for any help.

Mark